Fire destroys 150 homes in California

LAKE ISABELLA, Calif. — A voracious and deadly wildfire in central California has burned 150 homes, and the toll may rise, fire officials said Saturday.

The tally rose from 80 homes as firefighters began going through neighborhoods to count houses and mobile homes incinerated by the blaze.

Entire blocks were reduced to rubble, and at least 2,500 homes remained threatened.

The winds that drove the fire through small southern Sierra Nevada communities calmed by late afternoon, helping firefighters gain access to the fire line. However, hot weather and low humidity remained a worry.

“That’s something we have to keep an eye on. It could spark another disaster,” Kern County fire engineer Anthony Romero said. About 1,140 firefighters battled the flames. State of emergency

Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency, freeing up money and resources to fight the fire and to clean up in the aftermath. The Federal Emergency Management Agency also authorized the use of funds for firefighting efforts, fire officials said.

Since it began Thurs- day, the fire has swept through 35,711 acres — nearly 56 square miles — of parched brush and timber. It moved so quickly that some residents barely had time to escape — and two didn’t.

An elderly couple apparently was overcome by smoke as they tried to flee, county Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. Their bodies were found Friday, but their names haven’t been released. ‘You could barely see’

Allen Montgomery, 40, who lives across the street from the couple, said he didn’t know their names but understood that the woman was bedridden. Before he fled his home on Friday, Montgomery said he saw the man’s body about 20 feet from the house that was engulfed in flames.

“There was so much smoke you could barely see it,” he said.

Everett Evans, 45, fled Thursday as the fire came down a mountain with a roar toward his South Lake mobile home.

“When you hear a freight train, it’s time to leave. You could hear it, you could see it, you could smell it,” he said.

Evans said he knocked on doors to get neighbors to leave. But he has nothing left to come back to. Virtually no homes survived in his neighborhood.